St. Olga
St. Olga is a location cut from Half-Life 2 and reused in the technology demo Half-Life 2: Lost Coast. Overview To be located along the Coast, St. Olga consists in a small fishing village being attacked by a Headcrab Shell launcher, and a Byzantine monastery located at the top of a cliff overlooking the sea, partially surrounded by scaffolding, hinting it was probably being restored prior to the Combine invasion. Appearances ''Half-Life 2: Lost Coast In ''Lost Coast, Gordon Freeman awakens in a shallow tide on a beach near St. Olga. A Fisherman has apparently been waiting for him, and tells that he must be there to "take on the Combine" and take out their Headcrab Shell launcher, located in the Combine-occupied monastery above and attacking the village nearby, probably hiding Resistance members. As Freeman progresses along the cliffside to get into the monastery, he is attacked by Overwatch soldiers, and a few Headcrab Shells can be seen hitting the village and causing fires. Once inside the church, Freeman finds the Headcrab Shell launcher and sabotages it by blocking the mechanism with a candelabra, after which other Overwatch troops and a Hunter-Chopper attack. After defeating the Combine, Freeman returns below near the Fisherman through a mechanic lift. The Fisherman suggests to follow him to an unspecified (and apparently safe) part of St. Olga for a feast of Leeches, at which point the screens turns black and the game ends. Behind the scenes *According to the Lost Coast commentary, each area of the level was designed with a specific purpose. An Eastern Orthodox architectural / Byzantine style was deliberately chosen for the monastery, as buildings of this type "are very colorful and have a large variety of materials" and are "often lit naturally, with extremes of darkness and brightness," providing an ideal showcase for the HDR lighting effects.Viktor Antonov in the Lost Coast commentary : "Churches are great dramatic spaces. They're often lit naturally, with extremes of darkness and brightness, which makes them a great showcase for HDR. Gothic churches are the sober, monochromatic spaces that you’ve seen in almost every horror movie or game. Byzantine churches, on the other hand, are very colorful and have a large variety of materials. We wanted that color & material variety to show off our HDR reflections."'' The team also thought that the use of a monastery would help provide a starker contrast between old human architecture and futuristic Combine technology found within it.Viktor Antonov in the Lost Coast commentary : "We also like to focus on contrasting elements in our settings, like ancient human architecture and futuristic Combine technology. A monastery fit these requirements perfectly. Monasteries are generally isolated, unlit, and built ages ago. They provide a great backdrop for the contrasting Combine technology." *The cliffside leading the monastery has a gameplay-oriented purpose and is meant to mirror a similar cliffside combat scene seen in the Half-Life chapter Surface Tension. The cliffside also forces the player to be observant of threats from above and below, breaking from normal horizontal combat.Robin Walker in the Lost Coast commentary : "We were particularly happy with the vertical cliffside in Half-Life 1, and regretted that we didn't iterate further on that concept in Half-Life 2. Vertical space allows us to force the player to deal with threats from above and below. We find that players focus their view on the direction they're traveling, so by using a cliffside, and having the player ascend it, we ensure the player will look up and be prepared for enemies. If the player's path was to move past the bottom of the cliffside, it would be unlikely he would notice the soldiers rappelling down from above." *The monastery's courtyard was designed as an area where the player recovers from the cliffside combat, while also presenting a contained combat arena later in the level in which the player must hold their ground while they are attacked from multiple directions.Robin Walker in the Lost Coast commentary : "The courtyard in front of you is a space we call an Arena. Arenas are built to hold the player for a period of time, and usually contain combat or some other challenge. They often have multiple entry-points for enemies, along with a gate of some kind to prevent the player moving on, until the challenge has been completed. In this case, the arena is free of enemies until the player solves a puzzle, and triggers an alarm. This is a method that allows the player to explore the arena, and get a sense of its space before being forced to fight in it. It adds a sense of uneasiness to the player, who's expecting to be attacked now that they've reached the goal set for them at the start of the map. The break in action here is also a crucial part of the level's pacing. It allows the player to recover and explore the world a little, after being attacked on the way up the cliffside." Trivia *This location was probably meant to be somewhere in between the Half-Life 2 chapters Highway 17 and Sandtraps. *Although St. Olga was cut from Half-Life 2, it cannot be found in the WC mappack as most of the cut locations.WC mappack *St. Olga may be named after Saint Olga of Kiev, the first Christian queen of Kiev, Russia, and the patron saint of widows. *The monastery style and setting are probably based on the complex of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Meteora, Greece, featured in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. *The village and the cliffside may be based on a village similar to Manarola, Italy. *While very difficult, the village can be reached without cheats, but it is uninteresting as the village is just on large texture you can walk behind. Gallery Concept art File:Monastery large.jpg File:Monastery1.jpg File:Monastery2.jpg File:St olga concept.jpg Screenshots File:LC shipwreck.jpg|Shipwreck on the beach. File:D2 lostcoast0020.JPG|Scaffolding and the elevator below St. Olga monastery's church. File:D2 lostcoast0002.JPG|General view of the monastery from across the bay. File:Fisherman sun.jpg|The Fisherman against the sunlight. File:D2 lostcoast0022.jpg|The cliffside, similar to the third photograph below. File:D2 lostcoast00100.jpg|Overwatch Soldiers abseiling along the cliff. File:D2 lostcoast00105.jpg|St. Olga being bombarded by Headcrab Shells. File:D2 lostcoast0004.JPG|The village burning. File:D2 lostcoast0008.JPG|St. Olga's monastery's courtyard. File:D2 lostcoast0007.JPG|Ditto. File:D2 lostcoast00051.jpg|Inside the monastery's church. File:D2 lostcoast00064.jpg|Ditto. File:D2 lostcoast0011.JPG|Ditto. File:D2 lostcoast0012.JPG|Ditto. File:D2 lostcoast0014.JPG|Chancel in the church. File:Crab pot.jpg|Crab pot model. File:Boat drydock.jpg|Ship model. File:Boat fishing.jpg|Ditto. Real world images Images of the similar real world locations mentioned above. File:Meteora Agio Stefano.jpg|Agios Stefanos Monastery in Meteora, Greece. File:Manarola-Panorama-2.jpg|Manarola, Italy. File:Small boats in Manarola harbor.jpg|Two small boats in the harbor of Manarola, Italy. List of appearances *''Half-Life 2: Lost Coast'' Notes and references Category:Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Category:Cut Locations Category:The Coast locations